How important is clear beer to you?

Williams 728
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Clarity is important for competitions so I strive to match style guidelines when I need too. If I know a beer is never going to competition I won't bother with gelatin.
 
I think it's interesting to note that the style guidelines allow for a less clear beer when it's naturally appropriate. Which is my whole point the nature of the beer should dictate the way it will and/or should look and taste. If you add a sh..ton of dry hops excetera it's going to have a little haze I'm sure. Trying to change its true nature is not something that I personally want to do. That being said I don't want to dump half the trub in it either, that naturally shouldn't be in there.
 
Ok so im frigging excited ok so here we go a beerexperiment. this good pumpkin beer ive been raving about since November that i haven't brewed since cause of new stove and flakey electrician and main panel with full ground bus bar and no main shut off like operation game umm.. yeah so it cleared up right! Well its cold here in denver tonight like super cold and i pull a pumpkin cause dammit I'm going to to be finally be brewing Electric and the beer is cloudy yet I showed you pictures of crystal clear beer days ago so I don't know what it all means one day it's clear next cloudy. And the elfs watching your a...s so be cool

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Okay so the next one is clear and Rocky Mountain ice cold in my outdoor kegerator. But more importantly I'm enjoying my used B&W speakers
 
joshesmusica said:
Says you and nobody else. How in the world am I possibly able to make wonderfully aromatic hop forward beers after using gelatin on them? How are there tons of brewers on here who can do the same? Damn I must be really skilled! I always knew I needed to start up my own brewery.

Must be a really fun black and white world you live in.
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*shrug* Suit yourself, do whatever you want, I'm just sharing what I've learned from my own experience. Dry hops add aroma, but add haze to the beer. Gelatin strips those hop particles out. You want the aroma without the hops - good luck with that.
 
greyghost said:
Appearance only counts for 3 points. Head, color and clarity. That's why I don't care about it
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That's a huge 3 points when you consistently make 36-39 beers and when you are in the mini-bos or bos rounds. Assuming two beers are close to equal in all flavor components then a deciding factor will always be appearance. If a beer is out of style for its category.

It's also not really only 3 points because you can also lose "appearance" points when it comes to the overall score.

Just two weeks ago I was kept out a bos because I had a kolsch that needed more time to clear up. It had only been kegged 2 weeks when it was due. The judges respectively gave me 1/3 and 2/3 both commented on clarity in the overall so assume I possibly lost at least .5 points from each judge. That is 2 total points I lost in my recorded average score. It made my averaged score a 36.5 for that competition the top 4 beers were in the 37-39 range. If clarity wasn't an issue in my beer I would have at a minimum made it to the bos. I actually judged that bos and can say had I made it I quite possibly would have medaled.

This is a very long post to say when clarity is required by style I do think it is very important to try to get it for competition beers.

Also as I mentioned before if it isn't for a competition it doesn't matter to me and I take no extra steps other than whirfloc.
 
Well, as for me, I just made it a habit to get them as clear as possible. Flavor & appearance are a something I want to get as good as I can each time. That is, I can taste some difference with a lil trub in suspension. But that's me. Haze, not so much so. But those can be ok, as in hop haze.:mug:
 
i like to see clarity in my beer. i guess it's just one more technical aspect of brewing i want to master. also, clear beer is just pretty to look at. of course styles like wheat beers etc. don't need it, but when i can and when it is appropriate i try.
 
If I make a blonde ale or something lighter that is intended to serve to non craft beer drinkers then I make it clear with gelatin. If I make my pale ale or an IPA that is for me then I don't care at all and no gelatin.
 
I like to drink a clean, clear beer. It's so easy to add finings that it's a no- brainier.
 
Lemmings Go!, murky beer is cool, Prince is dead, what kind of a world do I live in nowadays? :(
 
It was never important to me ... until I got a really clear IPA and then I was absolutely delighted and realized I did care ...
 
Depends on the beer... if it is an IPA some haze is acceptable but not that murky east coast thing! Since I brew for my own tastes I can care less if someone else doesn't like it hazy! My APA's have cleared well on their own so far so nothing needed to help them. Same fora few other less hoppy styles I have tried.
 
Please don't disparage all of us east coasters with that murky flour-in-the-boil crap. Most of us don't do that.
 
The_Bishop said:
Please don't disparage all of us east coasters with that murky flour-in-the-boil crap. Most of us don't do that.
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For the love of god this. Anyone actually using flour is chasing a visual without understanding what actually makes the style hazy. Haze is just a byproduct of the style coming from water, the crazy hop additions, and when the hops are added.
 
I'm still not buying the 'hops cause the haze' thing. Permanently murky beer is *usually* the result of incomplete starch conversion, leading to starch in the finished product. If it was yeast in suspension or hop haze (hops *do* cause a haze but shouldn't make a beer look like a glass of tropicana) it would settle out in cold conditioning.

I'm of the opinion that this started out as rushed brewing to get product out faster, and now people are trying to make it a 'thing.'
 
Really depends on the beer. My "house ale", pilsner, etc - want them clear. My iPA's always have some haze. And hefe...I think we all agree!
 
Whatever. Most of my beers get clear when sitting at 40F in a keg for a few weeks. No fining agents. Of course there are obvious exceptions.
 
It isn't starch. The IPA I am drinking is hazy... OG was supposed to be 1.064 and I nailed it. FG was 1.010 so I had good conversion!

The_Bishop said:
I'm still not buying the 'hops cause the haze' thing. Permanently murky beer is *usually* the result of incomplete starch conversion, leading to starch in the finished product. If it was yeast in suspension or hop haze (hops *do* cause a haze but shouldn't make a beer look like a glass of tropicana) it would settle out in cold conditioning.

I'm of the opinion that this started out as rushed brewing to get product out faster, and now people are trying to make it a 'thing.'
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I put 6oz of hops dry hopped in my last ipa. Drank it 3 days later. If i remember correctly it wasnt clear.
 

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